Finance

Get a 'big picture' assessment of a publicly traded company. The requirements of the assignment are as follows:

THIS ESSAY SHOULD BE WRITTEN ABOUT FORD MOTOR COMPANY...

1. Select a large publicly traded company (such as Microsoft, Google, IBM, Disney, etc.). Your company should have been public for at least 5 years. Prepare a paper which discusses the items below.
   1. Company Overview: State what company you have chosen and provide a brief overview of the company, explaining what industry and lines of business it is in and other noteworthy information. (Good sources: The company's annual report, 10K SEC filing, Mergent database, Hoover's database.)
   2. Competitive Overview: Identify the company's primary competitors. Show the size in revenues or market cap of the company along with its top competitors. Discuss anything noteworthy related to competition. (Good sources: Yahoo! Finance, Mergent, Hoover's.)
   3. Financial Overview: Review the company's recent financial performance. Provide a high level summary of the income statement and balance sheet for the most recent (2 or 3) years available. Provide at least two financial ratios and explain their meaning. Provide a brief analysis of the financial information you have presented. (Good sources: Yahoo! Finance and Google Finance, 10K SEC filing.)
2. Paper Mechanicsshould be as follows:
   1. The body of the paper should be 2-3 pages.
   2. The paper should be in APA format (i.e. cover page, double-spaced, 12 pt font, reference section at end, etc.).
   3. The paper should include at least 3 sources, such as the annual report, Yahoo! Finance or Google Finance, the company's web site, etc.
   4. The paper should be divided into the sections indicated above (label each section clearly).